urXron

Delve Deep where still the Darkness dwells.

The Powers That Be

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The Powers are the entities responsible for the creation of the Realms of urXron, including the world Gaea and all the creatures that live there. Their responsibility extends to the very rules of physics. An individual Power would have a particular aspect of Gaea that they would take as an interest, sometimes overlapping with other Powers. A partial enumeration of the Powers is given in the Dramatis Personae.

Eight of the Powers, the Great Powers, had the largest charges for the Material Realm, and all of urXron, their sign of office the six-sided hexen they carried.

The relationship between the Powers and the mortal People is not one of simple worship on the part of the mortal. The Powers, for all their might, are not considered to be gods. Still, there is no doubt that some Powers cherish and respond to those who recognize and celebrate their existence.

Each Power is known by it’s three-letter designation (trigrammeton), and has a particular physical representation (with some variation) used in images. Although the physical form or aspect of a Power is completely unconstrained when inhabiting it’s own Realm, on the Physical Realm at least it will have at least the general aspect of its representation. Certain symbolic forms are also associated with individual Powers, used to mark their works and act as a short hand mnemonic and presentation of it’s divine capacity (e.g. “holy symbols”).

There are scriptures and ancient legends that tell how the Powers, and their minions, once walked on Gaea interacting directly with the People, but later they established hierarchies of priests and clerics to act as intermediates and agents. With few exceptions, all political power was in the hands of one of the hierarchies. Any established settlement would be administered from the central Powerhouse / Temple by that Power’s senior cleric, or Hierarch. This arrangement did not by itself prohibit the establishment of small temples, chapels, fanes, or household altars to other Powers with greater or lesser compatibility with the principal Power. Eldarhaven has an almost unique tradition of political independence from any Power, and though two Powers Pel and Ela have temples within the town boundaries, neither of the two hierarchies have any ex officio sovereignty over the entire town.

Besides the priesthood, there are other Disciplines whereby mortals act as conduits for the divine plan, for example Paladins.

Many Powers have a Capital where his high priest, or Hierophant, makes his headquarters.

Sailors and travelers have remarked that since the Darkness the (re-)establishment of clerical control in some cases seems to have been far from smooth. In some places it is the might of sword (or in a few cases the arcane staff) that defines the right of rule. Some folk opine that these changes offer certain… opportunities, while others, and not just clerics, yearn for the certainties of the Good Old Days.

Although the Powers no longer range over the Material Realm in their full glory, they might still manifest themselves directly in some limited form in some particular locations. A common tale is how the divine representation (usually a statue or other graven image) within a Power House, is imbued with the presence of the Power, so that it would move and act as a present physical being.

There are other tales where some times a Power would take off it’s mantle of immortal magnificence, and subsume its essence into some mortal avatar among the Kindred, who is born, lives, learns, and leaves its mark. After a time the Power will depart from the Material Realm, and taking his experiences with him, return to his Realm, and his full capacity.